Virginia lawmakers have approved a bill to allow qualifying patients to access medical marijuana in hospitals—but only if the federal government moves forward with a pending plan to reschedule cannabis.
The Senate Education and Health Subcommittee on Health voted 4-0 on Tuesday to advance the legislation from Sen. Barbara Favola (D). The proposal would build upon existing state statute protecting health professionals at hospices and nursing facilities that assist terminally ill patients in utilizing medical cannabis treatment.
Those protections would be expanded to hospital workers under the substitute version of the bill that was approved by the subcommittee. As originally introduced, the measure would have simply directed the state the Department of Health to form a working group to explore the reform, but its scope was expanded prior to the vote.
“What this bill does is it just allows a hospital to use medical cannabis under a prescription,” the sponsor of the Virginia measure said ahead of Tuesday’s vote. “Medical cannabis is currently available and can be used in a nursing home, a hospice, a hospice facility or assisted living facility. We are just adding hospitals to the current statute.”
Unlike other states where similar laws are in
Read full article on Marijuana Moment
